Updating Restaurant Brands International Inc., Linamar Corp., and BlackBerry Ltd.

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $77 (www.rbi.com) is the world’s third-largest fast-food operator after McDonald’s (No. 1) and Yum Brands (No. 2). It has 16,253 Burger King, 4,680 Tim Hortons (coffee and donuts) and 2,809 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (fried chicken) outlets in over 100 countries. In the third quarter of 2017, same-store sales at Tim Hortons rose just 0.3% despite the launch of popular new menu items like espresso drinks. That’s probably because several franchisees have publicly complained that the parent company’s cost-cutting initiatives have hurt the quality of its products. Hold. LINAMAR CORP. $73 (www.linamar.com) is buying the MacDon Group of Companies. Based in Winnipeg, that privately held firm makes agricultural harvesting equipment. Linamar will pay $1.2 billion for MacDon, which is equal to 25% of Linamar’s $4.8 billion market cap (the total value of all outstanding shares). The new operations will immediately add to its earnings. Moreover, they will help offset the company’s reliance on the sale of parts to…